Good News

Here’s where environmental messaging hits a brick wall. You’re trying to get people excited, and all you have to offer is bad news.

“Climate change!” you say to a roomful of your fellow citizens. Eyes glaze over and people feel helpless.

“Biodiversity loss!” People ask themselves if they should feel guilty for eating breakfast that morning.

“Gutting of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act!” The policy wonks in the front row start salivating while everyone else looks at their watches.

I’ve spent the summer working in media and communications for Sierra Club Canada’s head office. It’s been inspiring but also quite frustrating, as I’m tasked again and again with Mission Impossible: get people onboard with a message that’s mostly very dire.

When environmentalists win, it doesn’t feel like much of a victory. Clearcutting is temporarily suspended but will eventually go ahead. Big Oil is fined for its crimes but makes record profits, most of which will be spent on a PR campaign vilifying your work.

So where’s the good news? One thing that consistently amazes me is the incredible spirit of the people I’ve worked with. There are the impassioned lawyers working pro bono and the impassioned activists who won’t bow to intimidation. There are the students calling and asking how they can make a difference on campus. Others are biking across the country out of a sense of mission and adventure. Perhaps most importantly and least glamorously, there are the office workers handling mountains of files, arranging dates and keeping spirits up. They’re paid a pittance, but you’d have no idea looking at their incredible work ethic.

These people and their untiring spirit are what’s powering and steering this good ship. And while this type of information doesn’t always make for pithy press releases, it’s what has made my summer and cemented my commitment to the environmental movement.

That's the good news. Now onto the next fight.